I make little doubt but that the Reader will excufe my fupplying this blank page with the honeft apology of my predeceffor in this work, Mr. Doctor Lodge, the tranflator of Seneca's works in 1620. Let me intreat this favour at thy hands, curteous Reader, to pretend this tranflation to bee a garden, wherein though thou maieft find many holesome herbs, goodly flowers, and rich medicines; yet can it not be but fome weedes may rankly shoot out, which may fmoother or obfcure the light and luftre of the better. Play the good gardner I pray thee, and pulling up the weeds, make thy profit of the flowers. If thou wilt correct, bee confiderate before thou attempt, left in pretending to roote out one, thou commit many errors. What a Stoicke hath written, reade thou like a Christian. If any doubts entangle thy judgment, have recourse to the facred fynod of learned and pious divines; whofe judgment will felect thee out that which is for thy Joules profit, and diffuade thee from admitting that, which may either deprave thy judgment or corrupt thy foule. The fruite I expect for my labour at thy hands, is onely this; to interpret mine actions to the beft, and to correct with thy pen, that which other men lefs advised, have omitted by overhaftie labour. Farewell, and enjoy the fruits, which I have planted for thy profit; which though these times may haply neglect, the future may both applaude and allow. Vale. Thine in all vertuous endeavor, THOM. LODGE, THIS do, my Lucilius; vindicate the dignity of man: be your own mafter: and fuch hours as have hitherto been forcibly taken from you, or ftolen unawares, or have flipped by inadvertently, recollect, and for the future turn to fome account. You may be affured what I fay is true: part of our time we are obliged to facrifice to office and power; friendship and common occurrences fteal another part; and another flides away infenfibly: but most fcandalous is the lofs of it when owing to negligence and diffipation and yet small attention will evince, that great part of life (b) is spent in doing ill, a greater in doing nothing, and too often the whole in doing little or nothing to the great purpose of being. Where will you find (c) a man who fets any value upon time? who rates a day, or feems to understand that he dies daily? (d) For herein are we deceived; we look forwards at death; whereas death, in a great measure, is already paffed: all the lapfed years of life are in the tenure of death (e). At therefore, my Lucilius, as you inform me you do. Embrace every hour (f): the ftronger hold you have on to-day, the lefs will be your dependance on tomorrow. Life, however unimproved, ftill glides away. There is nothing (g) we can properly call our own, but Time: all other things are foreign to us nature hath put us in poffeffion of this one fleeting transitory boon; which VOL. I. B which any one deprives us of at pleasure (b): and fo great is the folly of mortals, that, when by entreaty they have obtained things of the lowest value, mere trifles, at leaft fuch as are payable again, they fuffer them to be fet to their account; but no one thinks himself indebted, who hath borrowed Time; whereas this is the only thing that the most grateful heart cannot repay. You will ask, perhaps, how I act myself, who am giving you this advice? I will confefs ingenuously; it is with me, as with those who are luxurious, and yet not quite negligent of their affairs. I still keep an account of my expences; I cannot fay, I lofe nothing; but I can tell you what I lofe, and why, and in what manner. I am not ashamed (i) to own the cause of my poverty: but it happens to me, as to many who have been reduced to indigence, not merely by their own misconduct: all men are ready to excuse and pity, but none to affift them. What then? I can by no means think him a poor man, who hath ftill enough (k), however fmall a portion it be, wherewith to be content. But may you, my friend, ftill keep your own; and feize the opportunity to use it properly. For as our ancestors wifely judged,-Sera parfimonia in fundo eft,—It is too late to be sparing, when the veffel is almost out (1). As not only a little (m) but the worst of every thing generally remains at the bottom. ANNOTATIONS, REFERENCES, &c. (a) The antients had feveral curt and wife fentences among them, which they fuppofed fome God the author of, (as if they had been always fenfible of the neceflity of divine revelation, and were ready to acknowledge the obligation,) fuch were, Know thyself, Obey God, Nothing too much, and the like; but one of the most celebrated among them, is, xgue pude, Tempori parce, Hufband well your Time. (See Cic. de Fin. 1. 3. Clem. Alex. Strom. I. Stoba 1. III. Erafm. Adag. Muret, in loc) This then Seneca makes the fubject of his first Epiftle: and parallel to it, is the exhortation of his cotemporary, our Apostle, Ephef. 5. 16. Co. 4. 5. Redeeming our Time, &c. (See Ep. 117. Plin. Ep. 1. 9. (b) That great part of life] Opfopæus from four MSS. reads it, Maxima vitæ pars elabitur malè agentibus, magna nihil agentibus, tota vita aliud agentibus. (See this paffage explained in Alciat Parergon Juris, 1. 4, C. 14. (c) Where will you find On all-important Time, through every age, Tho' much and warm the wife have urg'd; the man Is yet unborn, who duly weighs an hour. I've loft a day; the prince who nobly cried, Had been an Emperor without his crown.-Young. (d) Hr But we are fo perverfe, that however avaritious and tenacious we are of other things, we are extreme y prodigal of Time; we fr ely grant, at leaft, part of it to any one that asks it, and are never upon our guard against thofe thieves, that in a friendly way fteal it from us. The pilferer of a fixpence upon th road is without remorse committed to the gallows, whilft he who feals my Time, is under no obligation to apologize for his conduct. May we not complain here of the inequality of the legislature ? For furely nothing is more precious than Time. Nu lâ re ita nos egemas ut tempore. There is nothing we are so much in want of as lime. Zeno -And heophraftus was used to say, IλUTλis avarwa Xove, Nothing is more expensive than the lofs of Time.-And this, according to Gronovius, is undoubtedly the fenfe of the place: but fome read it, Ex quâ non expellit-i. e. No one is deprived of this treasure, but be that will not uje it aright, or who fuffers it to be taken, or stolen from him. Opfopaus from a MS. Ex quâ non expellitur-and Erafmus ftill differently, Ex quâ expellit quemcunque vult ; i. e. Nature hath given man this offion, but refumes it at pleasure. And fo the old French, De laquelle elle chofe quiconque elle vent. 1 (1) I am not ashamed] Alluding to his attendance at court. (k) Who bath fill enough] Old as I am, I complain not of the few days that remain for me in this life, but am fatisfied with them, and am determined to improve them to the beft advantage.. Happy refolution! (1) It is too late] From Hefiod, c. 366. Αίχομεν δέ πιθε και λήγοντος πο εσας θαι B 2 Perfiu Perfius alludes to the fame in Sat. II. Donec deceptus et exfpes Nequicquam fundo fufpiret nummus in imo. Thus vainly dreams the wretch, and ftill spends on, 'Till a poor defperate guinea left alone In filence mourns his dear companions gone. } And not unlike this is our proverb, When the feed is stolen, he shuts the stable door. Quandoquidem accepto claudenda eft janua damno. Juv. Sat. III. ПpoundeÚS LOTI μetà Tá πραγματα. Lucian. And that of the French. Apres la mort le medicin. After death the door. (See Erafm. Adag. 2. 2. 64.) (m) As not only a little] Antiphanes speaking of life, fays, Σφιδρ ̓ ἐστὶν ἡμῶν ὁ βίος δίσκος προς φερής / ξενω Οταν ἦ τὸ λοιπὸν μικρὸν, ὄξος γινεται. Our life like wine, when but few years are past, Is brifk and strong; but vinegar at laft. EPISTLE II. On Study; and true Riches. IAM happy, Lucilius, in conceiving great hopes of (a) you, both from what you write, and from what I hear of you: it seems, you are no wanderer, nor apt to difquiet yourself in vain with change of place; a restleffness which generally fprings from fome malady in the mind. The chief teftimony, I apprehend, of a mind truly calm and compofed, is, that it is confiftent with, and can enjoy itself. Be pleased likewise to confider that the reading many authors, and books of all forts, betrays a vague and unfteady difpofition. You must attach yourself to fome in particular, and thoroughly digeft what you read, if you would entrust the faithful memory with any thing of ule. He that is every-where, is no-where (b). They who spend their time in travelling, meet indeed with many an hoft, but few friends. This is neceffarily the cafe of those, who apply not familiarly to any one ftudy, but run over every thing curforily and in haste. The food profits not, nor gives due nourishment |